Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman appointed

New Delhi, Sept 1: A new officer took charge. Rajiv Kumar an economist today took over as the vice-chairman of government think tank Niti Aayog. He has replaced Arvind Panagariya, an Indian-American economist who left the governments new body formed after the abolition of Planning Commission yesterday to return to academia.

Mr. Kumar worked as a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). He had pursued DPhil in economics from Oxford and got a doctorate from Lucknow University. He had served as Secretary General of industry association FICCI.

Rajiv was a member of the National Security Advisory Board between 2006 and 2008. Mr. Kumar had also served as the chief economist of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and held senior positions in the Asian Development Bank, the Indian Ministry of Industries, and the Ministry of Finance.